A Chance Encounter
by LesbianGiraffe
Summary: The story of how Kris Yates and Selena Geeson met. Set before their time in Larkhall. A London taxi-driver picks up an injured young woman, and it doesn't stop there.


**I thought it would be interesting to tackle the question of how Kris and Selena met - we hear very little about what their relationship was like before Larkhall. You don't really need to know anything about the characters or the series to understand this story. **

**All the characters belong to Shed Productions. I'm just borrowing them.**

**Let me know if you want me to continue. :)**

It was pretty late on a cold Tuesday night so business was slow. Kris had spent the last hour driving around all the bars, restaurants and clubs in the area, trying to find someone who needed a taxi. It's not like she had anything better to be doing. She didn't want to go home - home was not a very nice place - and she had nowhere else to be, no one else to see. Eventually she saw a hand signalling her from the pavement on the corner of a residential street. Kris pulled up beside the young red haired woman who was waiting there, slightly swaying on her feet. As the woman got in the back of the taxi, Kris sighed, expecting the usual drunken woman who just wanted to talk about her boyfriend, either slagging him off or babbling about how wonderful he was. "Urm... I think I need to get to the hospital. Um, do you think you could get me there?" the redhead asked, sounding more shocked than drunk. "Sure, are you ok?" asked Kris, not particularly caring, she had been a taxi driver for too long to care about the individual passengers.

The hospital was only a short drive away so a few minutes later the black taxi pulled up just in sight of the A&E entrance. The passenger climbed out of the back door and proceeded to fall straight over. Kris shut off the engine and got out to help her up. "Sorry," the ginger woman said, then she burst into tears. Kris put her arm out to help her get off the floor, then grabbed onto her waist and helped her into the hospital, quietly reassuring the weeping woman that it was going to be alright.

When they reached the hospital doors, Kris could really see, for the first time, the woman she was helping. Her flamey coloured hair was shoulder-length and slightly wavy, it framed her pale, round face and accentuated her large blue eyes. It was clear that at the beginning of the night her makeup had been pristine; her lips were still mostly red but her mascara and eyeliner had smudged from the tears, leaving black trails around her eyes and down her cheeks. She was wearing tight, strappy, midnight blue dress and a simple silver chain. In her hand she was carrying a tiny black clutch bag and a pair of patent black 6 inch heels, one of which was broken. Her right ankle was hugely swollen and starting to turn blue; it was clear that it was causing her a lot of pain because she could not put any weight on it - she had to lean on Kris for support. Kris guided her over to the desk and spoke to the receptionist. "Selena, Selena Geeson." the redhead replied when the tired looking receptionist asked her name. "It might be a long wait I'm afraid," the receptionist informed them, "we are very busy tonight." At this, Selena burst into tears again, but Kris replaced her arm around her and said "Don't worry. I'll stay with you. It will be fine."

Kris did not know why she was so drawn to this woman - she was definitely not her usual type. She had never been into femmes, generally preferring the more butch lesbian that hung around the bars that Kris frequented. Not that that had ever turned out particularly well - Kris had a pretty disastrous track record when it came to women - a psychologist would have said that it was 'severe commitment issues and lack of trust due to the abuse she had suffered at the hands of her father' - utter crap as far as Kris was concerned. But despite all this, Kris had to admit that there was something interesting about the tear-stained, injured woman; something that she couldn't quite put her finger on. "I'm so sorry about this." said Selena quietly, staring into her lap. She was clearly embarrassed by needing to rely on a stranger for help. "Don't worry about it. Business has been quiet tonight." said Kris kindly, "My name's Kris by the way." she smiled at her new acquaintance. "Thanks Kris." said Selena, "Seriously, thanks for this." "No problem," replied Kris, "Now, are you going to tell me what you did to your ankle?" she asked.

Selena explained about the party she had been at with her boyfriend, Luke; a party at which she knew no one. She told of how Luke had wandered off and left her alone. While he flirted with all the other girls in the room, Selena spent the night avoiding drunken guys attempting to make a pass at her. Finally she'd had enough and when she called her boyfriend out on his behaviour, he had dumped her. Her shoe had broken as she was running away, eyes full of tears. "I always end up with the shitty guys!" She sobbed as she reached the end of her story. She rested her head on Kris' shoulder and closed her eyes. "It's ok" Kris reassured her, patting her on the leg comfortingly.

Surprisingly quickly, Selena was seen by a doctor and admitted. They took a couple of X-rays and concluded that her ankle was indeed broken; they found her a place on the ward and gave her some pain medication. Kris stayed with her the whole time and listened to what the doctors had to say when it was clear that Selena was feeling rather overwhelmed. However, the medication cheered her up significantly, and before long she was a lot more relaxed. She repeatedly thanked Kris for everything she had done and made a point to tell every single nurse and doctor that came past how helpful the blonde taxi driver had been. After a couple of hours a doctor arrived who reduced the break and then covered her ankle, foot and lower leg with a solid white cast. A few hours later, a smiley young physiotherapist appeared to give her a set of instructions about using crutches and how to look after her cast, and after signing a vast number of forms, she was discharged with a pair of crutches and a prescription for some more pain medication.

Kris carried Selena's bag and shoes while Selena hobbled out of the hospital on her new crutches. The injured woman stopped just outside the hospital doors, surprised by the early morning sunlight and unsure of where she was going to go. "Come on," said Kris, signalling over to her taxi which was still where they had left it the previous evening. "So, where to this time?" asked Kris cheerily, once they were both seated in the black cab. The journey was an unusual one for Kris because she rarely conversed with her passengers but her and Selena managed to chat away like they were old friends, and sooner than she would have wanted to, they pulled up outside a small block of apartments not far from the Stratford tube station. Kris parked up and got out of the car so that she could help Selena out too. It wasn't particularly easy getting the cast and crutches out of the car, but they managed it and soon they were standing face to face on the pavement outside Selena's apartment. It really hit Kris, for the first time that night, that Selena was beautiful. Her makeup was even more smudged than it had been the night before, and her hair was a complete mess, but her large eyes still dazzled a deep sea blue and her lips were settled in a perfect smile. Kris suddenly realised that she had been standing there staring at this woman, and shook her head to bring herself back to reality. Selena blushed, as if she knew what Kris was thinking, then she looked at the ground, "Do you want to come in for some breakfast?" she asked, not making eye contact, "You must be pretty tired after everything that has happened tonight." Kris smiled, which was incredibly unusual for her, "Sure, that'd be nice." she said. Then she mentally kicked herself "'nice'? what kind of a word is 'nice'? I sound like a complete idiot!" she thought.

It took quite a while for the pair to get up to Selena's apartment, which was on the second floor, because Selena was not finding the stairs easy to climb using the crutches. She kept having to lean on Kris for support and eventually ended up using a combination of Kris' arm and the stairs' handrail to get herself to the landing. Selena's apartment was small but nicely decorated, if a little untidy. She hobbled through the open plan living space towards the kitchen area of the room. "I could cook something," she suggested, "How about a fry-up?" She said, reaching into one of the cupboards, but then almost toppling over as she tried to reach the fridge. "Sounds great," said Kris, smiling endearingly and the slightly flustered woman, "but I'm pretty sure you're going to need some help," she added as she walked across the room and held open the fridge door. Minutes later the apartment was filled with the deeply comforting smell of bacon, sausage and egg, and Kris soon realised how hungry she was. As they tucked into their well deserved meal they continued chatting. It seemed impossible that they had first met just as a few hours ago because, if anyone had seen them, they would have assumed that they were old friends.

They had learned a lot about each other over the last few hours. For example, Kris learned that Selena was at college training to become a qualified fitness instructor, and that she also volunteered at a local drugs rehab centre because her older brother had ODed when she was 15. Selena had discovered that Kris had only gone into taxi driving so that she could flex her shifts to avoid being home at the same time as her father, who was an abusive drunk. Kris didn't go into details about her father, she just brushed it off matter-of-factly as if it was just an ordinary part of life. They had also shared and discussed their favourite music, films and hobbies, and Kris was starting to think that this felt a little bit like a date. However, nothing that Selena had said indicated that she was anything other than straight, but Kris had been characteristically blunt about her sexuality. It was a surprise though, that when Kris realised that she had to leave, after a call from her concerned supervisor, Selena said, "I know that I've thanked you a million times already, but I really mean it. You didn't have to stick around. Maybe I could take you out for dinner on Friday night, as a proper thank you." Kris was momentarily stunned, but quickly regained her composure,"I'd really like that," she replied, "here, give me a call." She added as she wrote her mobile number on the bottom of what looked like Selena's shopping list. "What just happened?" She asked herself as she drove away.


End file.
